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Neal Hefti was a trumpeter. So why am I writing about him in my guitar blog? Because he composed a number of classic jazz pieces which have been interpreted by many jazz guitarists.

First, some background on Neal Hefti. In addition to playing trumpet he had been a band leader, a composer and an arranger for big bands, most notably for the Count Basie band. He composed and arranged for others including Frank Sinatra. The work he is probably most known for is the score for the movie (and television series) The Odd Couple and for the TV Theme for Batman.

The Neal Hefti jazz standards I am most fond of are Lil’ Darlin’ and Girl Talk. The lyrics to Girl Talk aren’t surprising for the 1960s but sound embarrassingly sexist now. Neal didn’t write the lyrics. Those were by Bobby Troup 1.

Lil’ Darlin – Joe Pass

Although I can’t find any other well know jazz guitarists performing Lil’ Darlin on youtube, there are many good guitarists who give it a try. I own recordings of the following guitarists performing Lil’ Darlin’:

Barney Kessel

Chuck Wayne

Joe Pass

George Benson

Russel Malone

Dave Costa

I’m sure there are more.

&amp;lt;a HREF=”http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_mfw&amp;amp;#038;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;amp;#038;MarketPlace=US&amp;amp;#038;ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fdanlovgui-20%2F8001%2Fad1981eb-de63-48c6-9608-b4a2e2f86cc8&amp;amp;#038;Operation=NoScript”&amp;gt;Amazon.com Widgets&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;I can find no “famous” jazz guitarists performing Girl Talk on youtube, but again you may search and find many guitarists who have uploaded their rendition of the song. I also have fewer recordings of Girl Talk. However, you should see if you can find the following recordings of Girl Talk: